Trump heaps praise on ‘very popular’ Keir Starmer

Donald Trump heaped praise on “popular” Sir Keir Starmer ahead of the first meeting between the pair on Thursday night.

The former president said the British Prime Minister had run a “great” election campaign in a major diplomatic boost for Sir Keir.

His remarks, during a press conference at Trump Tower, came an hour before the British leader was due to arrive at the building for talks.

The Prime Minister asked for the meeting as he looks to build ties with the Republican candidate ahead of the US election in November.

He had also hoped to meet Kamala Harris, the Democrat candidate, but said that “diary challenges” had meant it was not possible to do so.

‘He ran a great race’

Asked what he thought of Sir Keir, Trump joked: “Well, I’m going to see him in about an hour so I have to be nice!”

He then added: “I actually think he’s very nice. He ran a great race, he did very well, it’s very early, he’s very popular.”

The Republican candidate also praised Nigel Farage and said his Reform party deserved to win more seats.

Reform won 14.3pc of the vote in July’s election, which was the third highest proportion nationwide, but because its support was spread out it only translated into five MPs.

In contrast the Liberal Democrats, who won 12.2pc, clinched 72 seats because their vote was heavily concentrated in parts of the south.

Mr Trump said: “I think Nigel is great, I’ve known him for a long time. He had a great election too, picked up a lot of seats, more seats than he was allowed to have actually.

“They acknowledged that he won but for some reason you have a strange system over there, you might win them but you don’t get them.”

Sir Keir was in New York for the UN General Assembly, where he gave a major speech denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

His meeting with Mr Trump was scheduled to come just hours after the Republican nominee gave his strongest signal yet that he would scale back support for Kyiv.

Ahead of the talks, Sir Keir said: “It’ll be really to establish a relationship between the two of us. I’m a great believer in personal relations on the international stage.

“I think it really matters that you know who your counterpart is in any given country, and know them you know personally, get to know them face to face.

“Obviously, I still want to speak to Harris as well. But you know, the usual diary challenges, but it’s good that this one now has been fixed.”

Sir Keir was asked whether he would be prepared to stand up to Trump if he becomes president again on global issues including Ukraine.

The Republican candidate criticised Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday and said Kyiv should have “given up a little bit” to appease Vladimir Putin.

“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelensky,” he said at a campaign event in North Carolina.

Asked whether he would confront Trump over his views, Sir Keir said: “The first thing I think is important to say in relation to this is we’ve obviously had a special relationship with the US for a long time, forged in really difficult circumstances.

“That always sits above whoever holds the particular office, either in the US or the UK, and it is really important.

“I think it’s probably as strong now as it’s ever been, in relation to the Middle East and Ukraine.”

He added: “The US people will decide who they want as their president, and we will work with whoever is president, as you would expect.

“I’m not going to speculate on what any particular issues may be the other side of the election.”